Empire poised to strike back live

George Palathingal

It has given us the robots of Kraftwerk, a true soul legend in Bobby Womack and a roots hero of our own in Gurrumul, yet the name at the top of the Vivid Live poster this year belongs to another artist.

An artist that only came into existence five years ago but created such a worldwide stir with their debut album and breathtaking live shows that the Vivid folk appear to be banking on their long-awaited return as the festival highlight – such is their belief that they're even streaming it live from the Sydney Opera House tonight to what will be a transfixed global audience.

The artist is Empire of the Sun, the unlikely collaboration between Aus-pop misfits Luke Steele (the Sleepy Jackson) and Nick Littlemore (Pnau), and their return is worthy of the worldwide attention – but can they possibly live up to such expectations after all that has gone before them? We don't just mean the gigs of the past week or so; we're talking about everything that has happened in mainstream Australian dance music in their absence.

The debut Empire of the Sun album, Walking on a Dream, was at the forefront of the electronic pop explosion that closed the first decade of the 2000s. It won the band seven ARIA awards in 2009, including the big three of best group, album and single, but the genre's landscape has changed considerably since.

Rising Australian stars such as Flume and Chet Faker have emerged from their bedroom studios to win thousands of hearts with their fresh combination of soul and electronica, while slightly older stars such as the Presets gave their take on electro a thorough reworking to stay relevant with their third album last year.

Meanwhile, Alive, the anthemic but relatively simple single with which the Empire struck back last month, has so far struck out.

It hasn't been higher than 39 on the ARIA chart, and while that might yet change with the song's increasing presence everywhere from the Vivid light shows to adverts on commercial television, it's not quite the instantly triumphant return many were expecting.

The news isn't all bad, though. The single's parent album Ice on the Dune, out on June 14, has ideas more sophisticated, better executed and, well, different enough from Alive to ensure it will please the fans who've been waiting for it.

Better yet, at Thursday night’s debut Empire of the Sun show for Vivid the song provided a spectacular finale to a hugely entertaining mix of the euphoric and the eccentric, complete with all the garish costumes, mesmerising dancing girls and colourful visuals we were hoping for.